Psalm 51:1-13
What Do the Guilty Need?
Notice the superscription:
1. In doing some recent study, I learned that many consider these notes as
inspired. Some do not so obviously there is some question about it, but
in studying the issue some for myself, I have learned some things.
2. The extra notes are mentioned in the most ancient commentaries that we
possess, indicating that if they were not given by the penman whom God
used to write out the psalm, they were added very shortly thereafter.
3. In the Hebrew Bible, unless the superscription is only one or two words,
it is included as the first verse. That means our Bible would be one
verse off in counting the verses from the Hebrew Bible.
All of this relates only to the book of Psalms. The superscriptions in the other
books of the Bible are known to have been added.
With that history in mind, this chapter’s superscription says that this psalm was
written by King David after Nathan confronted him about his sin with Bathsheba.
This, then, would be a psalm of David’s repentance.
David had committed many sins as a result of his encounter with Bathsheba.
1. He had lusted.
2. He had abused his authority.
3. He had committed adultery.
4. He betrayed a friend, a comrade, and a man under his authority.
5. He lied and attempted a cover-up.
6. He got a man drunk.
7. And he had a man killed.
Now, David wanted fellowship restored with God. Can he get it? Yes. Thank God
that he can. Thank God that we can too.
The next question is, "What is needed to get it?" You and I ask for forgiveness
and God gives it, but what do we need that forgiveness be granted unto us? I am
not certain why, perhaps it is because David is so grieved, perhaps it is because
David spend much time contemplating just how wicked he had been; regardless of why
David does so, he actually refers to many of the elements that God provides to us
when He forgives us.
Let’s note them.
I. \\#1\\ MERCY OF GOD. "Have mercy upon me, O God"
A. What is mercy?
1. Mercy is God’s unmerited favor, but it is more.
a. In that statement, we are saying that mercy is underserved.
b. There is nothing we can do to deserve mercy.
c. Anytime mercy is granted, is being done so due to the merit of
another.
d. That other is Jesus Christ.
e. It is fully accurate to ask God to give you mercy on the grounds of
what Jesus Christ has done.
f. In fact, it is the only grounds by which God will ever grant mercy.
2. Mercy is God holding back any part of our deserved punishment.
a. David was asking that God not punish him for his sin.
(1) David was the giver of justice in Israel.
(2) He was the chief judge who rendered to all their due for their
actions.
(3) David knew what he would do to a man who had committed these
crimes against another.
(4) He understood what he deserved.
(5) He was asking that God not give him what he deserved.
(6) When one recognizes his sin, this is as good as any place to
start.
(7) If one does not secure mercy quickly, he might not be around
to ask for anything else.
b. Man sometimes has a difficult time understanding just how merciful
God is.
(1) God will not, but if God gave a drop of water to a soul being
tormented in hell, that would be mercy.
(a) You say, "But he is still in hell."
(b) Yes, but if God gave him a drop of water, God would be
holding back a portion of the judgment the sinner
deserved.
(2) We don’t want God to withhold part of the punishment. We want
Him to hold it all back.
(a) So if we get drunk and have an automobile accident, we
don’t see God’s mercy.
i. We don’t see that God spared our wretched life.
ii We only see that we lost our car.
(b) If we die at 50, we don’t see that God was merciful at
giving us 50 years. We see God denied us the 10 or 20.
(3) May I tell you that if you have life and are not in hell, God
has been merciful to you today.
c. David did not get all of the mercy that he probably wanted.
(1) God will spare David’s life, but God declares that the sword
of justice would never depart from David’s house.
(2) One daughter raped by a brother;
one brother killed by a brother;
one son lead a revolt against David;
one son tried to steal the throne from a brother (twice),
which caused one son to execute the other for treason.
(3) God was merciful to David but it did not erase the whole debt.
(a) There is warning there.
(b) Do not presume upon the mercy of God to remove all you
punishment.
(c) Complete forgiveness is promised but complete mercy is
not.
(d) Many have been forgiven but they still must wear the
scars of a sinful life.
B. David knew that he needed God’s mercy.
1. He had been very, very wicked.
a. Being a servant of God, he knew how sinful his actions were.
b. Being blessed with wives, David knew taking another’s wife was
wrong.
c. Being blessed with men like Uriah who would die to defend David, he
knew he was betraying a friend.
2. David knew if God did not give him mercy, he would pay a terrible
price.
a. He determined that there would be no more attempts to hide his
sins.
b. There would be no more attempts to justify his wrong.
c. He was guilty and would simply pour himself out on the undeserved
mercy of God and hope that God will grant him enough mercy to
continue some form of life!
II. \\#2\\ CLEANSING FROM SIN. "Wash me thoroughly and cleanse me from my sin"
A. David felt the dirt of his sin.
1. It clung to him like filth.
a. He saw the stain of Uriah’s blood on his hands.
b. He smelled the odor of adultery on his bed.
c. He felt the grit of betrayal under his bare feet as he walked
through the halls of the palace.
2. Perhaps sin’s filth cannot be adequately explained, but it can be felt.
a. It is like walking on a sticky floor.
b. You may not see the substance but you know something dirty is
beneath you.
3. This is what David felt… polluted, defiled, dirty.
a. He sensed it with his emotions, with his senses.
b. The Bible word is unclean.
B. In the Old Testament, when something was unclean, they would wash it.
1. Of course, water has its limits.
a. You can only wash the outside of a thing with water.
b. We all understand that water cannot remove sin, spiritual
uncleanness, but that is what God commanded as a outward
manifestation of what God was doing on the inside for us.
2. David was asking for that washing.
C. In the New Testament, water has been recognized as insufficient even for
the cleansing of sin.
1Jo 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1. It is the blood of Jesus that cleanses that filthy stain.
Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool.
2. We can be rewashed in that blood anytime we have sinned by simply
asking God to do so.
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
III. \\#7\\ PURGED FROM GUILT. "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall he clean"
A. As the outward vessel needs to be washed of sin, so the inner man needs to
be purged of it.
1. This is pretty much the same thought as the last only to a different
area of the sinner.
2. Hyssop was a brush-like plant that was used to apply the blood of the
Passover lambs to the door posts.
Exodus 12:22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is
in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is
in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the
morning.
3. The outward vessel can be washed, but the inner man is more difficult
to reach.
4. A reaching tool must be used to get the blood where it needs to be
applied.
B. Oh, how difficult it is to purge the soul of the guilt and shame that
accompanies our sin.
1. To this day, I shutter and cringe at the some of the sins I have
committed.
a. Forgiven? Oh, yes. I know that I am forgiven.
b. However, I still feel the regret of hurting others, of being so
callused, so difficult, so arrogant.
c. I quickly remind myself of the applied blood applied to my account
and refuse the devil the pleasure of burning those images upon
my mind, but I know they will come again.
2. How I do understand those who go mad with the guilt of their past.
a. Peter wrestled with his denials of Christ, but he had the hyssop
dipped in blood and it removed his condemnation.
b. Judas likewise wrestle was his actions, but he never found the
hyssop to place the blood in that hard to reach spot, the guilt
spot of the soul.
C. David had cause to feel guilty.
1. He had destroyed a daughter in Israel’s purity, broken a home, taken
a life, involved his military general in complicity of murder.
2. He could have gone mad, but he was asking God to purge his soul of that
guilt.
3. What a blessing that when we sin, God does not just wash us of the
filth, he purges us of the guilt.
IV. \\#10\\ REGENERATION OF HEART. "Create in me a clean heart, O God"
A. Here David turned from the effects of his sin to the cause of it.
1. David began to contemplate what lead him to commit these sins.
2. The effect of sin is bad.
a. It is condemning in its very nature.
b. However, if we do not find out what is wrong on our inside that
allows us to commit such sins, regardless of how bad we feel,
we will do it again.
3. So David’s eyes turned inward.
B. David saw that he had a corrupt heart.
1. Jesus told us that our external actions are merely a symptom of our
internal heart.
Mt 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
2. David, upon questioning how a man of God could turn so far to the
wrong, saw that his heart was more corrupt that his life!
3. Indeed, it was so corrupted that neither a washing nor a purging would
do it any good.
4. This heart must be replaced with a new heart, one that loves God more
perfectly!
C. Here is where true repentance should lead us.
1. A true Christian does not just want the penalty of sin removed,
or the dirt of sin washed off of his life,
or the guilt of sin purged from his heart.
2. He wants to be made into a new creature that will not want to do those
kinds of deviant deeds again!
D. Salvation puts a new heart within us, but walking right keeps the arteries
clean.
1. I think David was God’s, but his heart needed something more.
2. He lived in that Old Testament dispensation and was lacking some things.
3. I think was David was asking for was what we got when the Holy Ghost
moved into us.
4. A constant Source to battle the corruption that remains within us all.
V. \\#10\\ RENEWAL OF SPIRIT. "Renew a right spirit within me."
A. The spirit of a man is not the man but it is very important part of a man’s
makeup.
1. That might not make sense, but I am beginning to believe it is so.
2. We are a soul.
3. We have a spiritual dimension so that we can fellowship with God.
B. David had damaged his spirit.
1. He had seared it, scared it, hardened it, and beat it down.
2. His spirit had told him what he was doing was wrong, but David put it
down and locked it away.
3. Now, his spirit was wounded, broken like the spirit of an animal who
had been abused.
4. In that condition, it would not be able to keep him from sin again.
5. Some of you have had your spirit beaten down.
a. There have been days when you despaired to live.
b. Why? Was something wrong with your eternal soul?
c. No, you spirit was broken.
d. Nothing influences your soul more than your spirit.
C. David wanted a revival of his spirit.
1. He wanted the bleeding wounds to be healed and the hardened scars to be
removed.
2. He wanted his spirit to be empower and emboldened again.
3. He needed his internal guiding light to be strong to keep him away from
lust and evil.
4. In short, David wanted a revival.
VI. \\#12\\ RESTORATION OF JOY. "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation"
A. If sin could make a person happy, David would the happiest person in the
world. He was not.
1. We watched a movie with the young people Friday about a Christian who
thought having what his peers had, their sins, their pleasures, would
make him happy. In the movie, God gave his a lost person’s life for
24 hours. He found out that pleasures of sin were just for a season.
They did not produce any real happiness.
2. David had lost his delight in the things of God, and he wanted to get
it back.
B. It is my belief that God will always give the joy of salvation back to a
repentant sinner; however, He may not do it right away.
1. I have seen some who were so quick to take the joy of salvation for
granted (myself included) that they gave it away like Esau gave away
his birthright.
2. Then, we they repented, I have seen some who wondered if they would ever
get back the kind of thrill they once had in Christ.
3. To my knowledge, every person has gotten it back, but some had to wait
a long time before they did.
C. There is another lesson there.
1. Don’t take spiritual blessings for granted.
2. Don’t give away what you cannot afford to lose.
I count six things in this text that we assume in our forgiveness.
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